Re-multiplexing operations in subscriber television networks typically select a subset of services from a set of incoming services contained in a multi program transport stream. In general, re-multiplexing of an MPEG-2 (Moving Picture Experts Group) transport stream is a random process, in the sense that there is no guarantee that two identical re-multiplexers receiving the same input transport stream and having the same settings will generate an identical output transport stream. One reason for this randomness may be that there is, in general, no phase and/or frequency relationship between the incoming and outgoing transport streams. Another reason may be that the hardware running in the different multiplexers is started at a different instance of time and is running from a different clock source, resulting in the insertion of packets in random positions in the outgoing transport stream (e.g. null packets).